My strawberries hate my strawberry tower. They literally run from it. Last year in my book writing garden absence, I let them run as they wished as I was failing the time to reign them in. Subsequently, if you drive by my house this weekend you will see a sign at the end of the…

Instead of writing about a particular plant or plant group, this week I thought I would talk about one of my favorite horticultural pruning techniques. The first time someone mentioned to me an “aerial hedge,” I envisioned puffy clouds of boxwoods floating through the air. But that would be weird and strange (like this week’s…

I found this really sweet bean tunnel over the winter and I’ve been dying to make one of my own ever since! April from Wahsega Valley Farm has an incredible backyard vegetable garden, and as soon as I saw this bare garden structure, I knew it would be a even cooler once the vines started to…

Our horticulture team at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is working on a new vertical wall idea for the summer of 2014. Today, we were brainstorming which plants to use in the vertical panels. Someone mentioned Sedum ‘Angelina,’ another idea was Lysmachia nummularia ‘Aurea,’ and then I remembered Joseph’s Coat or Alternanthera ficoidea. Alternanthera is a…

A couple of months back I was chatting with a new garden friend when she openly wondered what the next big garden trend will be. I have to admit — while I look for design trends all the time…I hadn’t thought much about the big arcs of our collective garden specific tastes. I think it is fair…

How about this little slice of inspiration for monday morning. Landscapers are always trying to get architects, homeowners and builders to involve them earlier and more holistically into the process of site design and construction….and it often doesn’t happen. So this notion of integrating gardens and greenery to an even greater level seems particularly remarkable. I do hope we…

I love coming across ideas that inspire new ideas. These urban garden plant modules made simply from hoses, fiber-cloth and fertilized soil – and hooked up to downspouts – seem to me to have all the potential loop-de-loop design interest of a hose laid with flourish (and in my book – that is a lot). Seeing…

Catching a glimpse of this picture on Pinterest, I was immediately inspired to learn more about the building and artist who created it. What a find to learn about architect -artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and the Hundertwasser House in Vienna, Austria. As a child Hundertwasser and his mother (who was Jewish) posed as Christians to avoid persecution in the time leading up to…

How into vertical gardens are you? Really? I can’t personally decide. On a commercial level I am way into them…I love to find them in shops and restaurants and surprisingly up a wall in the middle of a city. But in my own home I am quite undecided. I just can’t imagine one anywhere in…

I have been pondering how to bring you the wealth of garden inspiration that I am finding here at Chelsea. The gardens are, as usual, filled with design inspiration, back stories, pretty plants, and modern ideas. While I continue to organize my images and my thoughts, I think I simply need to stick with the…